Public Service Agreement Framework
Since their introduction in the 1998 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR),
every government department, including the Cabinet Office, has to produce a
Public Service Agreement detailing the Department’s aims and objectives for
the forthcoming three years. The agreement also describes how targets
will be achieved and how performance against these targets will be
measured.
Over the past two years the Government has been working with frontline
professionals, the public and external experts to renew the performance
management framework for the next decade.
In October 2007 30 new PSAs were published, setting a vision for continuous
and accelerated improvement in the Government's priority outcomes over
the CSR07 period (2008-11).
Each PSA is underpinned by a single Delivery Agreement shared across all
contributing departments and developed in consultation with delivery
partners and frontline workers. The delivery agreement describes the small
group of national outcome-focussed performance indicators that will be used
to measure progress towards each PSA.
The PSA Delivery Agreements and performance indicators can be found on the
Treasury Website:
Public Service Agreements and the third sector
The contribution of the third sector is recognised in the majority of the
delivery agreements (which outline how improvements will be achieved),
playing a particularly important role in promoting opportunities for people
from disadvantaged backgrounds. One PSA with particular importance to the
third sector is PSA 21, which aims to build more cohesive, empowered and
active communities, and which will be measured in part by the levels of
formal volunteering and employment in the third sector.
PSA Delivery Agreement 21: Build more cohesive, empowered and active
communities
Key to successful active communities is voluntary action (including a
greater role in voice and campaigning), wider participation in the design
and delivery of local services through third sector organisations, and
community led development of social enterprise solutions to local problems.
PSA 21 aims to build more cohesive, empowered and active communities and
includes an indicator to measure a thriving third sector.
This indicator will focus efforts to promote participation in formal
volunteering, growth in social enterprise and also to ensure that the
strength, dynamism, and capacity of all third sector organisations is
maintained and enhanced. It will also look to ensure that sustainability in
funding supports the recruitment and retention of skilled and committed
employees within the third sector.
The indicator will measure an index of regular formal volunteering (i.e.
volunteering at least once a month) and the number of full-time equivalent
staff the third sector employs.
